Mayor Bill de Blasio said yesterday that the city would fight in court a state-approved arrangement allowing General Motors to test self-driving cars in downtown Manhattan in 2018. De Blasio said the Police and Transportation departments should have been allowed to review the deal, which was brokered by the administration of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, de Blasio’s longtime nemesis. [Crain’s New York Business]

Trump personally interviews U.S. attorney candidates for NY area

President Donald Trump has interviewed Geoffrey Berman of law firm Greenberg Traurig and Edward McNally of Kasowitz Benson Torres for U.S. attorney posts covering greater New York. Trump also met with the eventual U.S. attorney for the Washington, D.C., jurisdiction. The action, rare for a president, has raised questions about prosecutorial independence. [Politico]

Police to target business owners in e-bike operation

In a crackdown on motorized bikes to start Jan. 1, the New York Police Department will focus on business owners using the vehicles rather than their drivers. The move, which Mayor Bill de Blasio detailed yesterday, is a pivot from the NYPD's original plan. Instead of issuing tickets, police will now impound the vehicles and charge owners to retrieve them. [Crain’s New York Business]

Broken Second Avenue subway fire alarms still on to-do list

The Second Avenue subway's fire alarm apparatus will not be fixed until December, according to correspondence between a Metropolitan Transportation Authority executive and the agency's board. The system hasn't worked properly since May 14, when a programming error doused the 86th Street station with water from sprinklers. Fixing it is expected to cost about $6.5 million. [New York Post]

Home care drives employment jump in city health sector

Growth in home care led a 3.1% rise in the number of private sector health care and social assistance jobs in New York City in the past year, according to state Labor Department figures. The number of home care jobs increased 8.8% from September 2016 to September 2016, with 704,600 New Yorkers working in the health care industry. [Crain’s Health Pulse]

Hispanic group threatens Verizon boycott

The National Hispanic Media Coalition has threatened to lead a boycott against Verizon if the cable provider doesn't reinstate mobile and Fios access to Univision for East Coast consumers. Manhattan-based Verizon pulled the Spanish-language network Monday night amid tense contract negotiations between it and Univision. [Axios]

Vox editorial director fired for sexual misconduct

Vox Media yesterday fired Editorial Director Lockhart Steele for "engaging in conduct that is inconsistent with our core values," according to a company statement. The behavior involved sexual contact with an employee who later left the company. Steele was also cofounder of editorial sites Curbed, Eater and Racked, which Vox bought in 2013. [New York]

Bobby Flay turning off the lights at Bar Americain

Chef Bobby Flay and business partner Laurence Kretchmer will close Bar Americain, their 12-year-old brasserie in Midtown, on Jan. 17. The pair said they had declined to renew their lease because it would have required costly renovations. In a statement, they said they have other projects in the works. [The New York Times]

Yankees look to go long in video-gaming

The New York Yankees are investing in the competitive video-gaming industry with the acquisition of a stake in Echo Fox, an e-sports franchise. Terms of the investment were not disclosed, but it involves a deal with an entity that contains Echo Fox, stats company Twin Galaxies and e-sports producer Vision Entertainment. [Crain’s New York Business]

Plus: The Yankees are one win away from the World Series as they head to Houston tonight to face the Astros in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series. [Daily News]

Also: Columbia's football team has opened its current season with five straight wins—the Lions' best start in 21 years. [NY 1]

De Blasio to appear in special that embiggens Homer Simpson

Mayor Bill de Blasio will appear in a mockumentary about the 1992 Simpsons episode in which the patriarch of the Fox cartoon clan crushes it as a softball player. The one-hour show, which treats Homer Simpson as a real-life athlete, will also include appearances from eight Major League Baseball players who did voiceovers for their doppelgangers in the episode. [Daily News]

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